The disclosure relates to glasses having antimicrobial properties. Even more particularly, the disclosure relates to damage resistant, chemically strengthened glasses having such antimicrobial properties.
High-strength glasses with anti-microbial surfaces are typically obtained through incorporation of silver, which is ion-exchanged into the glass via a molten salt (or aqueous) solution, into a surface region of the glass. However, the exchange of silver for potassium cations inevitably leads to a large drop in the compressive stress at the surface of the glass, causing is a significant loss of strength in the final glass product. This is because the ionic radius of silver (129 picometers (pm)) is much smaller than that of potassium (152 pm).